American International Journal of Social Science

Interlingual Rendition: A Vehicle for Self-Expression in English among College Students
Leslie S. Manalo

Abstract
Founded on the concepts of direct and interlingual rendition writing methods, this experimental study sought to determine the effectiveness of interlingual rendition as a method of self-expression in English essay writing among college students; direct writing means writing an essay directly in English while interlingual rendition refers to writing first in Filipino then decoding it in English. Participants were 60 first year English 2 students composed of 30 high performing (with GPA of 87-93) and 30 low performing (with GPA of 75-79) based on their performances in English 1. These two categories were divided into pairs of 15 high performing and 15 low performing creating four (4) groups in all. Assignment of which group will be using which writing method was carried out through drawing of lots. One high performing and one low performing groups used the direct method, and the remaining groups wrote their essays using the interlingual rendition. Codes were assigned to conceal participants’ identities. All groups had the same essay topic, limited to 250 words. Three qualified raters were invited to assess the essays using a validated rubric. Criteria included focus on topic, support for topic, sequencing, introduction and conclusion. The highest rating is 4, and the lowest is 1. The consistencies of the scores/ratings were tested using the Bivariate and Multiple Correlation Coefficient. Resulting correlational coefficients at 0.01 level of significance implied consistency on the scores. Scores were simplified and summarized using means, standard deviation and two-way ANOVA. All hypotheses were tested at 0.10 level of significance. Findings showed that while high performing students have the same quality of writing regardless of the method, the low performing groups’ scores revealed that those who used the interlingual rendition executed better. These lead one to conclude that the use of interlingual rendition is one effective means of helping low performing students write essays well.

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